The burden for employers to seek and obtain a suspension of a claimant’s workers’ compensation benefits based upon their voluntary withdrawal from the workforce just became complicated, because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in City of Pittsburgh and UPMC Benefit Management Services v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Robinson), ____ A.3d ____, 18 WAP 2011 (Pa. March 25, 2013), placed its seal of approval on the "totality of the circumstances" test previously espoused by a plurality of the Commonwealth Court.
An employer that seeks a suspension of benefits based upon a claimant’s "voluntary withdrawal" from the workforce must establish job availability either through job referrals or a labor market survey, unless it can prove that the "totality of the circumstances" reveals that such return-to-work efforts would be futile.
